Impact of heavy urban rail vehicles running over light rail turnouts

Abstract

One of the major concerns in the development of railway systems is to choose an optimized wheel and rail profile from a wide range of material and geometries. Although various investigations are conducted to improve the vehicle and rail behavior, there is less research on the wheel–rail interaction when a heavy vehicle passes through a light rail track. A numerical model of the train, track, and turnout is developed. The model is validated using the data obtained from field measurements conducted in the Iranian Metro network. The wheel–rail interaction is investigated by sensitivity analyses of the heavy vehicle and light track parameters including train speed, wheel profile, axle load, track gage, and curve radius. Results indicated that the derailment risk, wear rate, and wheel–rail stresses increased by up to 35%, 600%, and 120%, respectively, when a heavy vehicle passes through a light track. It was shown that consideration of specific arrangements allow better interaction between wheel and rail.